[Octagonal]

Hi, hoping that someone can help.

I have an Acer TravelMate 506DX (about 5 years old) running XP, and when I tried to start it today the thing just won't boot into windows. Prior to this everything appeared to run ok, no strange behavior.

Normal Mode: Starts with a different memory test (Acer bios screen that normaly doesn't show), then windows starts to load. Goes through the black windows splash screen with the progress bar and then stops at a black screen with the mouse pointer arrow on it.

Safe Mode: Starts with a different memory test, press F2 get the option menu then boots as far as a black Safe Mode screen with the mouse pointer arrow on it.

The hard drive has two partitions C (NTFS) and D (Fat32).

I tried last known Good Configuration but made no difference. I booted with a 98 startup disk and I can't access the previous C drive. The D drive is now showing as the C drive. Entered A:\Fdisk /status and it shows only one partition. So I booted with a Partition Magic floppy and it detects both partitions.

Any suggestions?

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Do you have a windows xp cd disk?

Reboot with that and the laptop set to boot from cd as first boot device

Choose R to repair using recovery console

At c:\windows\> prompt, type

fixmbr \Device\HardDisk0
<enter>

fixboot c:
<enter>

[gerryf]

Do you have a windows xp cd disk?

Reboot with that and the laptop set to boot from cd as first boot device

Choose R to repair using recovery console

At c:\windows\> prompt, type

fixmbr \Device\HardDisk0
<enter>

fixboot c:
<enter>

[Octagonal]

Hi gerryf,

Thanks for the assistance.

Ok, I just completed that step and it's still doing the same as my last post.

Anything else to try?

[gerryf]

unfortunately, that was the easy one

Sometimes, the symptoms you describe are simply a corrupted master boot record, or partition boot record...those two steps will fix that.

Failing that, use the cd rom to go back to the recovery console and
type

chkdsk /r
<enter>

Say yes to run on next reboot.

Reboot, go take a walk this will take some time.

This will correct minor to mid-range file system corruption

If that fails, you can try a repair install by following these instructions

http://www.geekstogo...ws-XP-t138.html

[Octagonal]

gerryf,

The chkdsk /r fixed it, everything seems back to normal now.

Thanks again.

[gerryf]